Brake beams used in conjunction with railroad cars have previously been constructed as a one-piece item with the brake heads and the connecting arm rigidly attached to the main beam. These beams were manufactured in both right hand and left hand orientations to accomodate both sets of wheels on the railroad car.
The beams are connected to actuating mechanisms which generally shift the beams between an unbraked position with the brake shoes (which are connected to the brake heads) spaced from the car wheels and a braked position in contact with the wheels to slow and/or stop the train.
These previous brake beams contained no structure which relieved excessive pulling force on the connecting arm, nor did they allow the brake shoes to adapt to the proper attitude on worn train wheels. As a result, prior beams were not totally effective in stopping the train, and were frequently broken which required expensive repair and/or rebuilding. Also, the rigid connection of the connecting arm to the main beam required that separate tooling be used to construct a right hand beam as opposed to a left hand beam.